NIAS fellowship for Lucie White: research into making justified policy decisions in time of crisis

Dr. Lucie White
Dr Lucie White

Utrecht University Assistant Professor Lucie White is one of the 52 scholars awarded a NIAS fellowship grant this year. In the second semester of the upcoming academic year, she will conduct research at NIAS into how to make justified policy decisions in a crisis, where acting quickly is needed, but on limited and uncertain information.

Justified policy decisions in a crisis

An unexpected crisis demands urgent, rapid action. But rapid action necessitates acting under severe uncertainty – with a very limited idea of the implications of public policy measures. This combination of urgency and severe uncertainty makes the ethical justification of policy measures very difficult.

Normal procedures for justification require extended periods of evidence gathering to ensure that policy decisions are based on scientifically justified conclusions, and prolonged public consultation to establish that decisions are publicly justified. This is ruled out in a crisis. Yet the drastic policy measures that might be required to effectively contain a crisis are in particularly pressing need of adequate justification. “I aim to examine how we can make justified science-based policy decisions under urgency and uncertainty, and potential implications for trust and responsibility”, White explains.

NIAS fellowship grant

The NIAS fellowship grant is awarded by the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS), one of the institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Promoting slow science, these grants offer an opportunity for researchers, writers, journalists, and artists to dedicate five or ten months to their research projects within the institute’s international and interdisciplinary setting.